Searching for Indigenous Truth: Exploring a Restorative Justice Approach to Redress Abuse at American Indian Boarding Schools

Abstract

After the discovery of mass graves at Residential Schools in Canada, the United States revaluated its own history with Indian Boarding Schools. The nation will likely grapple with the issue of finding appropriate solutions for historical mass atrocities in the near future as it too discovers the remains of Native American children who died at federal Indian boarding schools. Indian boarding schools have a long and abusive history that still today affects descendants of the students who attended these institutions in the past. The United States and other nations turned to restorative justice to address harm to Indigenous people in the past, resulting in both successes in providing opportunities for survivors to share their stories and failures in effecting permanent change. This Note argues that, in the wake of the federal investigation into deaths at these schools, the U.S. federal government should employ a restorative justice approach to promote healing both within Indigenous communities and the country as a whole from the trauma of Indian boarding schools.